Editor’s Note: The featured picture is of Alex Noren’s heavily calloused fingers.
I have spent my life watching recreational golfers struggle with their basic ball striking skills. Statisticians show that the majority of golfers never break 90 and a great many have average scores higher than this.
This post is for golfers in that category. However, I think you’ll find it interesting to read as well.
In the last two years, I have spent time with friends with high handicaps who are at various levels of golf ability, from relative beginners to those who have been struggling for decades. I’m always amazed by how golfers play the game for years without ever achieving a reasonable level of consistency in their ball-striking.
From these observations, I am convinced that many players with a mid-to-high handicap do not achieve the consistency they want because they try to “hit” a ball with their masterhand instead of swinging with their core and arms.
I had a sort of epiphany. Listen to me and consider this…
Years of observation have convinced me that golf can be so difficult because of this simple mistake: whether it’s driving or chipping, the biggest error is to think you control the ball strike with your hands. Early in my life, I was taught that the fundamentals of golf are a rotational movement of the core of the body with the club and hands following this rotation into the impact zone.
I just realized that the golfers’ challenge in embracing this fundamental is the idea that golfers play “left-handed” or right-handed. You should stand to the left of the ball if you are a right-handed person. Your weaker hand is leading the swing and you’re probably using your master hand to “guide” the golf club to the target. You are a “right-handed player” after all.
If you stand on the left side of the golf ball (again, facing the target), then it is “left-handed”. The same is true for those who play the game “right-handed”. What if we changed our thinking and said that if one stands on the left-hand side of the golf ball (again facing the target), they are playing “left-sided”? And if they stand on right-hand side, then they are playing “right-sided?”
If you think about it this way, it makes sense that the left side of your body will lead the core, hands, arms and club during impact. You are not a right-handed player. Instead, you’re a left-sided one. As a left-handed player, your left side must be in a good position in order to pull through the club on your downswing and push it back during the takeaway.
Why is this important?
The golf swing can be compared to a chain made up of multiple links that are relatively rigid. The body core is linked to the shoulders which are then connected to the lead arm which is then attached to the club by the hands. If you had to move a heavy chain, would you try to pull it, or push it? You cannot push a metal chain. However, when you use your right hand to control the swing, you are actually pushing the chain from the center.
I do not believe there is any reason why a golfer should be “stuck”, with their abilities, which keep them in the 90s or 100s. However, I am certain it would require extraordinary eye-hand co-ordination for any player who has a dominant hand to score consistently in low single-digits.
Years ago, when I was a golf club fitter, I developed a convincing demonstration to show how difficult it was to control a club with the hands. I had a volunteer sign their name with a Sharpie on my flip chart. Signing your name is one of the easiest eye-hand exercises you can do.
I then gave the volunteer a Sharpie-taped wedge and asked them to try to sign again. It was almost always a scrawl that looked like a hen scratch.
What are your chances of consistently hitting the ball with a solid swing if you cannot sign your name on the wedge?
No matter if you’re left- or right-sided, I hope that you have the same epiphany as me when you read today’s blog post.
